Iranian Hard-liners Threaten Cleric
By Afshin Valinejad
Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, January 20, 1999
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Hard-liners have threatened suicide attacks against
a Shiite Muslim cleric for supporting a religious leader who has questioned
the clergy's right to rule Iran, a newspaper reported Wednesday.
The hard-line Hezbollah of Isfahan group threatened to ``carry out
its political, revolutionary and religious duty, even to the point of martyrdom''
against Ayatollah Jalaledin Taheri, according to comments published in
the daily Asr-e-Azadegan newspaper.
The group was apparently angered by a prayer service Taheri led in
the city of Isfahan in favor of Grand Ayatollah Ali Montazeri, who was
once expected to become Iran's supreme religious leader but was cast aside
after he openly criticized the hard-line rule of the clerics.
The prayer service was attended by about 70,000 people. Critics of
Taheri disrupted the service by heckling and throwing an iron bar and other
objects at the senior cleric.
Afterward, several of Montazeri's supporters were arrested after they
shouted slogans in his favor, The Tehran Times reported. The prayers were
held to mark Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim feast at the end of the holy month
of Ramadan.
Montazeri had been expected to succeed the late Ayatollah Ruhollah
Khomeini as Iran's supreme leader. But just months before dying in June
1989, Khomeini dismissed him because of his comments against the clergy.
Montazeri still enjoys a large following among Iranians, despite efforts
by hard-liners to sideline him.
The government of President Mohammed Khatami on Wednesday called for
an investigation of the disruption of the prayer service.
``The Cabinet expressed regret over the kind of incidents which have
taken place in Isfahan a number of times and stressed the need for investigations
and the punishment of those responsible,'' state-run television reported.
Since he was dismissed by Khomeini, Montazeri has been under house
arrest in the city of Qom, about 80 miles southwest of the capital Tehran.
In November 1997, Montazeri was publicly repudiated after he questioned
the legitimacy of rule by the clergy, including Iran's powerful spiritual
leader Ali Khamenei, who replaced Khomeini.
Khamenei accused him of treason and, days later, hard-liners attacked
Montazeri's home and office in Qom, forcing him to flee under police protection.
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